Hairdryer
by secretxsoul
Summary: One shot- misunderstanding between Shepard, Garrus, and a hairdryer.
"Spirits Shepard!" a voice startled her into dropping the old plastic dryer onto the metal floor where it clanged.

"What? What happened? Are the reapers coming?" Shepard immediately turned around to face a very flustered and panicked looking Garrus Vakarian striding towards her, "Did someone find something about Cerberus?"

"No." Garrus replied stopping in front of her, his visor blinking, "You don't have to worry about anything. There are no surprise attacks and EDI and Traynor are still looking." his mandibles flared as he looked into her eyes and then he sighed looking troubled. He was acting as if his whole world was about to come down crashing and burning.

"Well...then what's wrong?" Shepard asked as she looked up into the turian's blue eyes, "Did something happen?" she was starting to feel a sense of dread and she had no idea why. But something about the way Garrus was looking at her told her that it wasn't good.

"I…" Garrus brought her close to him, "Shepard you know that a lot of people care about you right?" he was stumbling around with his words as if he was uncertain on what to say. Nervous, she realized, Garrus was actually nervous about something and it was different than the awkwardness that he displayed during their more intimate moments together.

"Yeah…?" Shepard looked at him with a raised eyebrow wondering where this was going.

"And you know that you have a lot to live for don't you?" Garrus continued keeping his gaze on her face.

"Where is this going?" Shepard asked finally and she crossed her arms over her chest.

"You know don't you?" he pressed on and he grasped her shoulder with a gloved talon.

"Yes, of course I do." Shepard replied, "What are you trying to get at though?" she asked in genuine confusion. He was acting as if she were going to throw herself out of the airlock any moment.

There was silence for a few moments as Garrus seemed to search her face for any trace of a lie. And when he seemed to find none, he reluctantly opened his mouth, "Why were you trying to put a bullet through your head Shepard?" Garrus finally asked.

"What?" she asked in surprise, the question seemed to come from nowhere and she almost laughed aloud, "Where did that come from?" she looked at him.

"Where did that come from?" he repeated and then he pointed at the bathroom appliance still on the floor, "That's where it came from." he looked at her, "Tell me why the love of my life is trying to make a hole in her head in the bathroom when I go out for a second to grab something from the main battery." his mandibles pulled in tightly, "Was it because of the chocolates that the doctor gave me? Is it some earth custom I don't know about because if it is I can give them back you know." his sub tones and harmonics seemed to wail.

Shepard busted out laughing, "That's what this is about?" she asked and then she turned around to pick up the hair dryer from the floor despite his best efforts to stop her, "It's not a gun Garrus." she turned to him with a smile on her face.

He looked at her almost reproachfully, "Then what is it?" he asked still scrutinizing the would be weapon in her hands.

"Watch." she told him and then she pointed the open end of it at her hair and before Garrus could protest or move, to his utter horror, she pressed the switch. He almost shut his eyes.

But contrary to the splatter of blood he had been expecting, there was now a nice warm breeze making her wet hair swing back and forth.

"What is that?" he asked after a moment. It made a sound he had never heard before and it looked like it had virtually no use. Was it radiation? No...most of the radiation devices he knew of didn't look like that. Was it a laser then? No, there would be a light. His mind quickly rifled through the catalog of weapons he knew of but nothing fit the description.

Shepard turned and gave his face a good blast of hot air to which he tensed and took a step back. He saw her grinning and point the thing back at her hair, "It's a hair dryer." she laughed and raked her other hand through the wet strands of her hair while the machine blasted hot hair in the direction she pointed it in.

"A...hair dryer?" he asked watching her intently still tense and ready should anything adverse happen, "What's a hair dryer?" he blinked against the water droplets that she unintentionally sprayed in his direction.

"It's...a human device." Shepard spoke above the whine of the machine, "A faster way to dry our hair after a shower or after it gets wet." she explained, "You know how our hair gets when liquid is involved." she shook out a particularly soaked strand of hair and smacked him in the face with it, "Sorry." she laughed at the indignant look on his face and went back to drying her hair.

"So...this is a device to dry wet hair." Garrus deadpanned, his voice was gravelly, " It's not dangerous at all?"

"Well..only if you plug it in and turn it on in the water." Shepard thought for a moment and then she turned the device off and spun around to face a bewildered looking Garrus, "I would never come this far to put a bullet in my own head." she spoke softly and cracked a grin at him, "Hell, I've done so much just to survive until now."

Garrus sighed and let his forehead rest against hers, "Don't scare me like that Shepard." he wrapped his arms around her waist and brought her closer.

"Considering my luck though, I wouldn't die even if I wanted to." Shepard joked.

Garrus blinked and his mandibles pulled in tightly, "And I know you don't want to." he looked into her eyes.

Shepard just grinned, "Who's the one that was scared just moments ago that I was going to put a bullet in my head?" she laughed when Garrus blinked and looked away from her.

They pulled away from each other with Shepard still laughing.

""Yeah yeah laugh all you want Shepard." Garrus muttered darkly,"Just know that had our positions been switched you wouldn't have found it to be very funny at all."

Shepard just grinned and reached over for the hair dryer, "You know that Joker would never let you live this one down if he knew about it."

"Please Shepard, that's not really necessary is it?" Garrus made a u-turn from his walk to the black couches and stood right behind Shepard as she continued to blow dry her hair.

"Depends." Shepard just replied with a wide eyed innocent look at him which could be seen reflected on the mirror in front of them both. She couldn't help but to laugh at the perplexed look on his face.

Saving the galaxy didn't seem like such an impossible task now.

Shepard handed over the hair dryer to Garrus and nodded at him to dry her hair. He held it gingerly in his large talon and gently raked his other hand through her now damp hair the way he had watched her do moments before.

Yeah, it wouldn't be too bad. They just had to take it one step at a time, one moment at a time.


End file.
